Tag Archives: Hair

buns, bows and annie mac

12 Feb

Last night I went to see Annie Mac at Koko – an amazing night. I now need to find Annie and convince her to be my NBF.

It was my first time in Koko and I absolutely loved it – a beautiful venue, laid out over several floors. While on the dance floor I decided that I could happily stay there forever and ever. And ever.

The music was unbelievable.

It was one of the coldest nights I’ve experienced so far in London but, despite this, several girls had teeny shorts and bare legs. If that had been me I would be a frozen statue in Camden now – it would take several hairdryers to defrost me! Instead I opted for black tights (still never warm enough!), a long sleeved dress (I sound like a granny) and some comfortable brogues (officially in granny territory now), my massive black jacket from Asos and some cat-shaped earmuffs.

I based my outfit around a scarf that I decided to wear as a hairband.

I had some panicked minutes, where I was already late to meet my friends, standing in my room with my hairband on and no clue what to wear! I remembered packing a long black, shoulder padded dress in my suitcase after Christmas. I bought it ages ago but only ever wore it once as it is long enough on me so only looks good with black tights – to avoid midget leg syndrome.

We started off in the Earl of Camden – great pub with comfy sofas and fantastic food (from what I could see… and smell!), although I just had a bag of crisps ’cause I’m classy like that.

Outfit deets:

Dress: Topshop

Scarf (worn as hairband): River Island

Watch: Swatch

Necklace: Topshop

Earrings: Tiffany

Battered bag: Fendi (it’s been through the mill at this stage!)

I used Topshop’s felt-tip lip pen in Berry on my lips – it literally lasts the whole night and doesn’t come off when you’re drinking. I just wore a clear gloss over it as I find lip stains can be quite drying on their own.

I now feel I want to wear hairband scarves everyday. Forever!

Kellebelle

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the big move…

6 Aug

Starting a new job is like getting a haircut.

You may stick to what you like – getting a trim and some safe caramel highlights – or go completely different a la Katy Perry and take the plunge from black to blonde! When you undertake a big change like this (as all fellow hair-dyers will know!) you have to risk having unsightly orange ‘bosco the clown’ hair momentarily until you get to your perfect blonde shade.

Coming from a radio/PR/media background, the step into recruitment was a pretty big career change. I was happily working in radio for the last few years in Dublin having just left university. Things were going well – I got some great experience researching and reporting for some brilliant radio stations and even met Jedward! *tumble weed* But after a while I decided it was time to move on. I always wanted to live in London and the impending cut backs in my last office gave me the push I needed to move on.

One of my best friends from home had just started a new job in recruitment and after meeting her for dinner one evening it got me thinking about looking into recruitment roles in London. Certain aspects of recruitment sounded pretty similar to my previous jobs – and I loved the thoughts of being in a sociable role where I got paid to chat and meet great candidates and clients!

I knew coming from a creative, fun, working environment that I wanted similar and wouldn’t suit a strict, formal office.

One of the most important things for me in moving jobs was to work with nice people in a fun environment. I liked the look of Ecom’s site with their bright designs and little ‘cartoony egg’ people graphics (to use the…technical term!) – I’m like a magpie, shiny bright things catch my attention.

So that had me sold – I fired off my CV and cover letter. I flew over from Dublin for interviews at Ecom and quickly found out how expensive looking for another job is! I didn’t really want to hand in my notice without a solid offer of a job but knew if I didn’t get the job at Ecom that I would just have to come to London and hope for the best, as flying back and forth for interviews was not an option.

After meeting a few of the staff, the role at Ecom quickly became my first choice. At the second interview I was told that they’d let me know by the end of the day. I was flying back to Dublin at 5pm that day so knew it could go either way – either I would be very happy indeed… or I would be attempting to busk on the plane hoping to earn a few extra quid to fund my move to London as an unemployed person.

Luckily I didn’t have to subject the cabin crew to my fantastic singing and spoon playing.

After that, things happened really quickly – I finished up my radio job, said goodbye to my friends, family and lovely dogs and off to London I went…with three massive suitcases!

I was so excited to move, and slightly terrified. I was going from working in an area I had studied in university and had worked in for years, to something completely different! I had the fear of permanently being stuck in the orange ‘bosco the clown’ hair phase (see my hair analogy does make sense…I think!). Luckily after my first day I knew I’d love Ecom – the people were lovely and I was allowed to play Jedward and 5ive on Spotify (with only a few complaints!).

I’ve been here three months now and have had to get used to living in a new country as well as starting a new job.

As with any new job there’s a lot to take in, in the first month especially, and for a while I was even dreaming about Ecom! The most exciting thing so far was doing my first deal and placing a candidate in their dream job…and the work day out to Ascot was pretty amazing too – I won £23…then lost £18 of it on another bet! But hey that’s still a £5 profit!

I can honestly say that I look forward to going to work in the mornings – partly because breakfast is my favourite meal! – but also because I work with a great bunch of people in a fantastic city!

From: Ecom Blog

All pics from We Heart It

girl crush: blake lively

7 Mar

I especially love her curly haired dog!

Blake possibly has the nicest hair in the world. Ever.

I have serious hair envy.

K

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bam – it’s the weekend…

25 Feb

K

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i love you kg

16 Dec

Haven’t done an outfit post in a while… mainly because I don’t know how to set up my camera on automatic (technology is not my strong point!) and I was a bit of a hermit with the snow so haven’t been around anyone to take photies… and to be honest snow, ice and cold mornings just equal me wearing UGGs and the warmest things I can get my hands on! … On that note my luffly little earmuffs snapped in half today while I was getting ready for work!

RIP earmuffs… we had good times together.

Now this isn’t the most exciting outfit post – just the kind of thing I wear to work or into town!

As you can see I got my favourite KG boots in black after first getting the cream colour… I have them in brown too!

So this is is my *new* hair length… it’s even again since getting it done earlier this month in Style Club! WOOP!

It looks and feels so much better after getting four inches off!

Outfit deets:

Cardigan: Topshop

Belt: Urban Outfitters

Shorts: Topshop:

Tights: River Island

Boots: KG (BT2)

I love skinny belts!

Kellebelle

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wishlist

5 Dec

I’m feeling very festive all of a sudden!

Could it be the fact that Christmas is only 20 days away?! Or  because of all the snow we’ve had? Or the lovely lights on around Dublin? Well yes to all of those!

I wandered around town for a little bit yesterday before I got my hair done – as my readers will know the last time I got my hair cut the hairdresser botched it up and it was completely uneven – and it was just so lovely and festive around the place!

I absolutely love Style Club. Stacey in there  showed me that the left side of my hair was in fact three inches longer than the right! So I got just under four inches chopped off yesterday to even it up *eek* ! Quite a lot when you’re trying to grow your hair as long as it will grow! I blame disney – particularly the little Mermaid for my love of long hair!

Luckily it still looks the same length – bahahhaaha, Kellebelle: 1, Hair: 0 – it’s just cut properly now! Also got my roots dyed darker (I like the grungey look a la Rachel Bilson!) and a half head of blonde balayage done by Lucy – absolutely love it! If anyone is looking for good hair stylists in Dublin I’d definitely point them towards Style Club’s  Stacey for cuts and Lucy for colour!

Anyhoo! I’ve been flicking through the December issues of some magazines and love the pages dedicated to Christmas Wishlists (Stellar and Marie Claire have great ones!) so decided I’d do my own!

Santa if you’re reading this blog I have been very good this year – I even got up early today (on a Sunday!) to tidy my bedroom!

As you can see I am a fan of books and toys for Christmas! I am a child at heart! I love board games tho’ – the Game of Life and Monopoly are my absolute faves! When I was little I used to get a different boardgame every Christmas… including some dodgy boring ones like Discover Ireland!

I was in Brown Thomas the other day – oh wow – their Christmas section and Marvel Room are stunning. They have the BEST collection of books ever. I spent most of my time looking at the childrens books – I just love the illustrations! They had an ah.may.zing Alive in Wonderland book collection – I want it!

Now to win the lotto…

The deets: Top 5 images – Urban Outfitters, DVD/Books – Amazon,  MAC make-up,  PJs/Shoes/Turban – Topshop, Sylvanian Families/Dog/Game Of Life – Smyths Toys

i whip my hair back and forth

25 Oct

For the first time in my loiifee I bought hair extensions – Jessica Simpson ones.

Now I tend to be a bit skeptical when celebrities put their names to products. Speaking of which got some free Rockstar tan in work (made by a girl who used to be in fair city!!! Gas) now it is actually my new fave tan, no funky smell, and lovely colour.

Anyhoo back to the hair! Now my hair is long-ish anyways but… (and this is why I HATE getting my hair cut) it is an inch and a half longer on the left side?!!?!! State. The hairdresser cut it a few months ago uneven *rage* but I don’t want to get it evened up ‘cuz I want to keep my length (even if it is uneven!)

So in I went to Hairspray on Wicklow Street looking for some easy to put in extensions – now I had been told that Jessica Simpson ones are very good so at €59 I said I’d give them a go. You can get curly ones, straight ones – even clip in fringes! I decided to go for the straight ones – tho’ I am seriously thinking of going back and getting the curly ones now too. They are so easy to put in and the colour matched perfectly with my own hair.

After talking to some friends who wear extensions the whole time the Jessica Simpson range come up top for them when it comes to synthetic hair extensions. The colours in the range are fantastic and make it easy to match your hair. When I first went in to Hairspray one of the girls said it would be hard to match my hair as it’s highlighted, but I got a lovely shade called Glazed Strawberry. Of course as the extensions are synthetic you can’t straighten or curl them like you could with human hair extensions.

Also has anyone been into Zara recently? They have the most amazing winter collection I have seen. I wanted to buy everything in the shop. They have amazing knitwear – very Christmas jumpery! I got an amazing camel coat in there on Saturday. Typical – went in there looking for a cardigan, came out with a coat, pair on shorts, going out jacket and two shirts for work…. em… and no cardigan!

I am a little in love with the shorts – beige with braces! I love braces.  Anything a bit geeky and I’m a fan! Now the shorts themselves were size 8, but I find Zara’s clothes can be a bit big fitting – their XS are perfect tho’! I had to nip in the shorts with a belt to make them fit – but I quite like the look of the belt with the braces!

Outfit deets:

Body Con Top: Topshop

Shorts: Zara

Belt: Urban Outfitters

Gold Watch: Swatch

Black Watch: Urban Outfitters (yes two watches!)

Socks: Urban Outfitters

Shoes: KG by Kurt Geiger

… and a closer look at the ol’ extention items!

K

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balayage at style club

6 Oct

I’ll admit hairdressers kinda scare me.

Not necessarily the hairdressers themselves… just the thoughts of going to a new one in case they feck up my hair. I’ve had numerous occasions where I’ve asked for a few ‘subtle’ blonde highlights and have come out completely orangey blonde, or occasions where a teeney tiny (stress teeney tiny!) trim turns into 4 inches!

I normally go to Toni and Guy in Waterford but alas living in Dublin can be a bit of a problem when I wake up in a panic and realise I won’t be home for ages. These little things seem to slip my mind! Last weekend I had my birthday night out on Friday and my cousin’s wedding on Sunday… and of course I completely forgot to factor in that I wouldn’t get home beforehand to spruce up the ol’ hair item.

At the moment I have a bit of an ‘alexa chung’ type colour going on. I.e darkish roots and lighter ends.Now my problem is (and I don’t know why!) but loads of hairdressers I went to for a consultation didn’t seem to know how to do it. I went to Dylan Bradshaw and the girl there just said she’d put highlights underneath – even tho’ I repeatedly said the colour shouldn’t start right at the root, it should be more like the boo-tiful Rachel Bilson below…

Anyhoo I finally decided on the Style Club on South William Street. I went in there with my little stack of pictures and had a consultation with Karl. He knew exactly what I was talking about. He explained the process is called balayage - the highlights are painted on by hand and no silly tinfoil is required! The best part was that during our chat Karl went off  and brought back a little folder they specifically have on balayage, it was filled with cut outs of SJP’s hair, Jessica Biel and Gisele. It was great to know he actually knew exactly what I wanted.

Style Club itself is without a doubt the coolest salon I’ve ever been in. Think psychedelic tones, bright pinks and tartan patterns. The staff in there are lovely – very friendly and genuinely nice. They give an amazing shampoo too – massage chair and head massage! I wanted to stay there all day! They seem to have an endless supply of new mags which is great if you tend to buy tonnes of them like me – at least you don’t end up reading ones you already have!

The balayage process itself was much quicker than normal highlights – the whole thing (including curly blowdry!) took less than two hours! Style Club seem very good for discounts and had a 20% off going on at the time.

This is how it turned out:

Em… yes I look like I am in love with the owner of those hands… it was actually the magician at the wedding!

K

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girl crush: drew barrymore

31 Aug

I love Drew. Her hair is fab at the mo’ too! Very excited to see her new movie Going the Distance with Justin Long.

Are they still going out?? Hope so! Very cute…

K

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style icon:whitney port

9 Aug

I am a little bit in love with Whitney Port at the minute.

I remember when I was thirteen or fourteen I got a Bobbi Brown make-up book (to this day it’s my favourite make-up brand) that said every one should have a style icon they can relate to in some sense.  I think it came up in the context of Bobbi never having anyone she could really relate to growing up – she was surrounded by pictures of blonde, pale skined, blue-eyed models while she had strong features, brown eyes, dark hair and dark, tanned skin.

Anyhoo it’s a really good point if you think about it.

It’s nice to pick a style icon that you can relate to in some ways, of course I don’t mean find someone who’s a carbon copy of you – that could be hard (or impossible for non-professional lookalikes!) but even try find someone like you in terms of style, weight, face shape etc.

I love Katy Perry but I look nothing (and I mean nothing!) like her. She has amazing curves (I have none), pale skin (I’m sallow to the point of yellow!). I think she is so fab tho’ that I decided a while back I would dye my hair like her… disaster. I looked washed out and dead, and thank God I didn’t go for the fringe too.

I felt kinda bad after it tho’ – how come she looked so nice with dark hair and I looked completely shit??

Bobbi’s point was that if we can find a beauty/style icon we can relate to it can make us feel better about ourselves – we’re not comparing ourselves to something completely unobtainable, i.e. if you’re a pale skin, red-haired Irish girl someone like the fabulous Karen Gillen.

Whitney has a long face shape more like mine, brown eyes, middle parting/long hair (same ish colour and style), similar colourings in terms of skin tone etc. When I went to the hairdressers to get a Whitney-esque colour it came out nice and I didn’t look dead a la Katy Perry. Phew. We’re about the same ish build – she’s obvo waaaay taller.

(On a side note – why is it that it seems quite hard to say ‘I’m not fat’ or  ‘I’m slim’… Is it just me? Maybe it’s an Irish thing but I hate saying anything about my size. It almost seems if anyone says ‘oh you’re so skinny’ the proper answer is ‘go awaaay out of that I am not, look how big my *insert random body part* is).

Now obviously I don’t look like Whitney (*dreams*) but I think it is quite nice to have a style icon who you can at least feel like you can try emulate in some shape or form. We all have our own style and quirks but it’s nice to look to others for  inspiration. I personally love Whitney’s laid back style – I am a big blazer fan, esp. boyfriend blazers which Whitney wears a lot. She actually has a fab one HERE from her own line… tho’ a bit on the pricey side!

Of course it’s great to have a variety of style icons but it is nice to have at least one whose photos don’t make you feel crappy about yourself (ahem Katy Perry and her fab curves!)

What do you guys think?

K

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